House of Commons - Progress towards devolution in Northern Ireland during the 2005 Parliament

Progress towards devolution in Northern Ireland during the 2005 Parliament - Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Contents

3 Northern Ireland Affairs

The future of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and the NIO

44. The transfer of policing and justice matters to the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive has substantial implications for the future of the Northern Ireland Office and for any future Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. Our role, set out in Standing Order No. 152 of the House of Commons, is to "examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Northern Ireland Office". We may also consider the administration and expenditure of the Crown Solicitor's Office and other matters within the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

45. The NIO currently has responsibility for Northern Ireland's constitutional and security issues, particularly, law and order, political affairs, policing and criminal justice. Of those, only "political affairs" would remain after devolution, providing a secretariat for the Secretary of State and dealing with reserved matters including elections and human rights. The NIO is also responsible for matters relating to the licensing of and legislation concerning firearms and explosives.

46. The NIO has a number of agencies; the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the Compensation Agency for Northern Ireland, Forensic Science Northern Ireland, on which we have recently reported, and Youth Justice Agency, all of which will be devolved. It also funds two legal offices—the Crown Solicitor's Office and the Public Prosecution Service. The latter will be devolved to Stormont with policing and justice; the former remains the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Office.

47. In short, the devolution of policing and justice, which we fully welcome, will leave any future Northern Ireland Affairs Committee with a substantially reduced remit.

THE WORK OF THIS COMMITTEE

48. None the less, as our work over the past five years has shown, a Westminster Committee has a unique perspective on policy and administration within Northern Ireland and has a role to play in identifying areas of concern. Indeed, any successor Committee would, we trust, wish to follow up the work that we have recently published in our reports on the Omagh Bombing and Television Broadcasting. Any future legislation to introduce a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland will be a matter for Westminster, and we have published evidence that we received on that matter for the assistance of any future Committee. The Government has yet to decide which, if any, of the recommendations made by the Consultative Group on the Past (co-chaired by Lord Eames and Mr Denis Bradley) will be adopted, and their response to that will provide considerable fruit for further thought. In addition, the expected publication in the near future of Lord Saville's report into the events of Sunday 30 January 1972 (Bloody Sunday) is likely to raise significant political issues for the Northern Ireland Office and its Secretary of State.

49. We believe that a continuing UK-wide perspective on the work done by the Assembly and the Executive at Stormont would be both useful and desirable. In particular, a future Northern Ireland Affairs Committee should be charged with overseeing not just the work of the Northern Ireland Office as it remains, but with taking a strategic view of how devolution is operating within Northern Ireland, at least in its early years. To that end, we recommend that the House of Commons Standing Order which sets out the remit of departmental Select Committees at Westminster, should be amended to include within the remit of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee the maintenance of relations with the Northern Ireland Assembly and strategic oversight of the devolution settlement in Northern Ireland.

OUR INQUIRIES

50. We have, over the course of the past five years, published 10 major Reports on matters including organised crime, the cost of policing the past, community restorative justice and the Prison Service and Forensic Science Service. Beyond the field of policing and justice, we have considered tourism (before it became a devolved matter) and television broadcasting. We have examined the relationship between the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the fields of policing and justice. We have considered the recommendations made by Lord Eames and Mr Bradley on how Northern Ireland may deal with the legacy of its past.

51. We have above noted some of the advances made following recommendations made in our Report on Prisons. As we approach the end of the Parliament, it is as yet too soon to report progress on our more recent work on, the Consultative Group on the Past and Television Broadcasting. Follow up on the work we did on tourism and education now properly belongs with the relevant Committees of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Omagh bombing

52. Most importantly of all, we have identified questions that remain unanswered surrounding the bombing of Omagh in August 1998, an atrocity committed by the Real IRA which left 29 people and two unborn babies dead, and which was the worst mass murder committed in the history of Northern Ireland. In that Report, we referred to our one significant disagreement with and disappointment at the conduct of Her Majesty's Government: we made plain, yet again, our concern at the refusal of the Prime Minister to grant permission for our Chairman to have an opportunity to read the whole report produced by the Intelligence Services Commissioner, the Rt Hon. Sir Peter Gibson, on his review of intercepted intelligence in relation to the bombing.[49]

Community Restorative Justice

53. The Committee conducted an inquiry in 2006-07 into community-based restorative justice schemes, reporting in January 2007 and making more than 20 recommendations.[50] We were glad to hear from the new Chief Constable that he sees a continuing role for restorative justice after devolution has been completed.[51]

Forensic Science Service

54. In February 2010, the Committee published its Report on Forensic Science Northern Ireland, in which we drew attention to the excellence of the work done by that service but also to the imperative need for it to be rehoused in satisfactory premises at the earliest possible date.[52]

Cross-border co-operation

55. In the field of cross-border co-operation, however, we are happy to note some significant progress in one area in particular. We recommended that reciprocal legislation, passed in the 1970s, allowing certain largely terrorist-related offences committed in the UK to be tried in the Republic of Ireland and vice versa, should be extended to cover new offences, such as rape, money-laundering and human trafficking (the latter perceived, as Assistant Chief Constable Harris told us, as a growing problem across the island of Ireland).[53] Both the UK and the Republic of Ireland Governments have responded positively to our suggestion, and discussions are under way on how new offences might be covered by extensions to the existing legislation or by new legislation.

Organised crime in Northern Ireland

56. In the area of organised crime, too, we may report some progress during the course of the 2005 Parliament. We reported on organised crime in Northern Ireland in July 2006. We are grateful to the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) for undertaking a study of progress made since then in the areas on which we made recommendations and for reporting it to us in a private briefing in March 2010. The NIAO's memorandum, jointly prepared with the National Audit Office, is attached to this Report (see Ev. 48), and it has published a detailed note of progress made and the conclusions that they have drawn from it.[54] That note, containing some 50 recommendations on action, has been submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland, and we should expect our successor Committee in the next Parliament to monitor the outcome of the PAC's consideration.

57. The Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF), established in 2000 and restructured in 2005, is currently comprised of representatives from the NIO, the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), the PSNI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the Home Office, the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the UK Border Agency, the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

58. The organisations now involved in the OTCF include both those which will be accountable directly to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont and some, such as SOCA and HMRC, which are responsible for UK-wide activity and therefore accountable to Westminster. This raises the question of where precisely responsibility for scrutiny of their activities in a Northern Ireland context will lie, once policing and justice powers are devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive. The NIAO recommends that a future Northern Ireland Affairs Committee continue to monitor activity in this regard.[55] We agree with the Northern Ireland Audit Office that the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee must keep under review in future the operation of the Organised Crime Task Force in Northern Ireland in so far as its activities are conducted by bodies which have UK-wide crime-fighting responsibilities, and we recommend to our successor Committee that it should do so.

59. The NIAO also raised with us some concern that individual Departments within the Northern Ireland Executive are vulnerable to targeting by organised criminals and gangs. In particular, social security, housing benefit, social development programme funding and the single farm payment scheme may offer scope for fraud, and the NAO and NIAO suggest Northern Ireland Departments need to be vigilant. For example,

We trust that Departments within the Northern Ireland Executive will take due note of the warnings of the Northern Ireland Audit Office that a number of publicly funded programmes are vulnerable to the activities of organised criminals.

60. We recommended in our Report on Cross-border co-operation between the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in 2009 that the Government should consider adopting Schengen provisions in relation to hot pursuit across international borders. We had heard from SOCA that such provisions would greatly assist the fight against organised crime. The Government rejected that recommendation, saying that practical cross-border co-operation between the PSNI and An Garda Siochana, which we had praised, did not at present require it. The NIAO suggests, however, that the Government should again consider whether adoption of the Schengen provisions on hot pursuit would contribute to countering drug crime and other forms of organised crime. Its detailed note states:

61. We acknowledge that the Government has not thought it right to adopt the Schengen provisions on hot pursuit hitherto. We are aware, too, that there are differences of opinion within policing and enforcement agencies on the usefulness of the provisions in the context of the land border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland. We note, however, that the Northern Ireland Audit Office has added its voice to those who favour adoption as a means of combating organised crime in both directions across that border, and we believe that this is a further matter our successors in the next Parliament may wish to keep under consideration.

62. The Northern Ireland Audit Office has suggested that the value of organised crime in the UK as a whole is estimated at between £20 and £25 billion, but no separate figure exists specifically for Northern Ireland, and it is in the nature of organised crime that any figure is, in any event, to some extent guesswork. The NIAO does, however, believe that drug-related activity, human trafficking, ID theft and illegal dumping are among organised crimes on the increase, while those relating to oils/fuels, cigarettes, alcohol and counterfeiting are either at a steady level or reducing.[58] On oils frauds, for example, the National Audit Office notes that "The general assessment, shared by both the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), is that the incidence of this crime type is reducing in the wake of more effective enforcement, with sales of unlawful fuel now steady".[59]

63. The implications of this shift from older types of organised crime and towards new types will require more detailed consideration than is possible in this Report. The growth, however, of immigration-related crimes such as human trafficking matched by a reduction in crimes that have for decades funded paramilitary activity, such as fuel frauds, may, however, reflect changes both in the culture and the population of Northern Ireland and some shift away from the sectarian divide that disfigured it for so much of the 20^thcentury. Once again, this is something our successors in the next Parliament may wish to keep under review.

Conclusion

64. We have sought to visit Northern Ireland between four and six times each year, and to make an annual visit to the Republic of Ireland. In addition to our regular visits to Belfast, we have travelled to Omagh, Newry, the border areas of South Armagh, Downpatrick and Crossmaglen. During the preparation of our Report on tourism, we travelled throughout the Province.

65. All who have served on the Committee during the Parliament would wish to record our thanks to the Clerks who have served us diligently—Mr James Rhys from May 2005; Mr Steve Priestley from November 2007; and Mr David Weir from November 2008—and to the Committee's staff. We are grateful for all that they have done to ensure the smooth and effective working of the Committee and for the arrangements that they have made for our many visits to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

66. We have been privileged to meet remarkable people—among them, Michael Gallagher and his fellow officers of the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group who have campaigned so hard for justice in the memory of their loved ones; Stephen and Briege Quinn, whose dignity in face of the murder of their son, Paul, is an example to all; and Sir Hugh Orde, whose seven years as Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland were marked by significant success in winning the confidence of the whole community.

67. We thank Commissioner Fachtna Murphy of An Garda Siochana, and his predecessor, Commissioner Noel Conroy: their courtesy and incisive briefings illuminated our understanding of the issues facing two police services across an international land border. Dozens more people showed us unfailing kindness and courtesy, and their freely shared knowledge has been of vital importance to our work. We are grateful to members of the Government of the Republic of Ireland who have regularly and willingly given of their time to meet the Committee during its visits to Dublin. We are grateful to have been given the opportunity to meet colleagues from both Houses in the Oireachtas. We also record our thanks to successive British Ambassadors in Dublin for their hospitality, their briefings to the Committee and the opportunities that they have provided at the Embassy and the Residence to meet leading figures in the life of the Republic of Ireland.

68. We pay tribute, finally, to the politicians who enabled change to occur. The appointment in 2007 of Rt Hon. and Rev. Dr Ian Paisley as First Minister and Mr Martin McGuinness as deputy First Minister provided the key which unlocked the process that has led to the likely devolution of policing and justice on 12 April 2010. We were pleased to welcome the establishment of the Executive and a new Assembly in 2007 and were delighted to be able to follow the development of events between then and the retirement of Dr Paisley. Our Chairman represented us at the Invest Northern Ireland conference called at the end of Dr Paisley's period in office and was present throughout the following week in Northern Ireland when the Committee gave a dinner in honour of Dr Paisley and made a presentation to him.

69. The Committee is especially grateful to the present First Minister, Rt Hon. Peter Robinson MP, and his colleagues for meeting us, and for the opportunities that we have had since 2007 to meet Members of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland. We record our thanks to the Speaker of the Assembly and his officials for enabling us to meet and to hold public evidence sessions at Stormont, and for the hospitality that we have received when holding meetings and press conferences there to publish our Reports.

70. We pay tribute, finally, to the Prime Minister, and to his predecessor, Rt Hon. Tony Blair, and to Rt Hon. Shaun Woodward MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt Hon. Paul Goggins MP, Minister of State, Rt Hon. Peter Hain, who as Secretary of State commissioned the work of the Consultative Group, and all those who have held ministerial office in the NIO since May 2005. Their joint and individual efforts, building on the work of their predecessors and maintaining a bipartisan policy towards Northern Ireland, have been crucial to success during the long and often difficult process towards peace and stability in one of the most remarkably beautiful and historically fascinating parts of the United Kingdom.

49 Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, The Omagh bombing: some remaining questions, Fourth Report of Session 2009-10, HC 374. Back

50 Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Draft Protocol for Community-based Restorative Justice Schemes, First Report of Session 2006-07, HC 87. Back

51 Q 121 Back

52 Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Forensic Science Northern Ireland, Fifth Report of Session 2009-10, HC 314. Back

53 Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Cross-border co-operation between the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, Second Report of Session 2008-09, HC 1031, para ; and Qq 124-27 Back

54 Northern Ireland Audit Office, Detailed Note accompanying the memorandum to the Committee of Public Accounts from the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland: Organised Crime: developments since the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Report 2006, 10 January 2010. Back

55 Ibid, para 16. Back

56 Ibid, para 2.2.18 Back

57 Ibid, para 1.6.24 Back

58 Ibid. Back

59 Northern Ireland Audit Office, Detailed Note accompanying the memorandum to the Committee of Public Accounts from the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland: Organised Crime: developments since the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Report 2006, 10 January 2010, para 1.6.3.

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